Story Of A Song: Toto/Miles Davis’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’

I’ve always had a somewhat ‘troubled’ relationship with Toto’s music, to put it mildly. Toto IV (1982) was obviously a classic of its kind, Hydra (1979) certainly had its moments and there are other classy tracks dotted around, but I’ve generally thought to myself: David Hungate, David Paich, late great Jeff Porcaro and Steve Lukather are fantastic musicians who have played on some of the greatest albums of all time – so what are they doing in this band, writing these songs?

But I found a solution of sorts when I came across a track buried at the end of their lacklustre Fahrenheit album from 1986. ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ is a cracking instrumental with nice chord changes, a great melody, gorgeous bridge, slick playing from co-writers Paich and Lukather and a memorable guest spot from Miles Davis.

Of course Miles was no stranger to the world of Toto and the LA session elite in general. He was tight with Quincy Jones, producer of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, an album that heavily featured Jeff Porcaro, Paich and Lukather. Miles had also covered Thriller‘s ‘Human Nature’ (co-written by Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro) on his You’re Under Arrest album the previous year. He was also apparently a big fan of Jeff Porcaro’s painting, not to mention his drumming, so a full-scale Miles/Toto collaboration was surely always on the cards.

Miles and Robben Ford, Montreux Jazz Festival 1986

But the recording of ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, which took place at Jeff Porcaro’s home studio in early 1986, wasn’t a walk in the park, as Steve Lukather told George Cole in the excellent ‘Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991’:

‘We cut the track and left the melody off – we just left open spaces. When Miles got there, we ran it down together with him and he wasn’t really playing the melody. So we figured, we’re not going to tell Miles Davis what to play, so we said, “Miles, we have a take of this, would you mind just giving it a listen and play whatever you want?” He says, “Okay, I’ll play like that. You like that old shit, right?” So he gets out the Harmon mute and he played it – one take. We’re all stood there completely freaked out – it was unbelievable. At the end, the song just kind of fades out, but he just kept playing the blues. I was sitting there with chicken skin on my arms – it was an unbelievable moment. And that’s how we ended the record, with just Miles blowing. Later on, David Sanborn came down to play on a different tune on the record and he’d heard that we had cut a tune with Miles. He said: “I gotta hear it!”, so we played it and he flipped and said, “Please just let me be on the track!” He doubled the melody and played a couple of flurries. So we got Sanborn, Miles and us on one track – that was pretty cool!’

Jeff Porcaro on the Fahrenheit World Tour, 1986

But Steve Porcaro alluded to the wider issue of including a ‘jazz’ track on a ‘heavy rock’ album when he told George Cole: ‘I don’t know how thrilled the record company or our managers were, but for us working with Miles was a major feather in our cap.’

But that kind of political scene didn’t affect Miles: he loved ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ and quickly integrated it into his own live set. It remained a staple of his concerts from 1986 right up until 1990, the year before his death.

It’s a beautiful piece of work.

But while we’re at it, has anyone got a lead sheet of the tune? I want to learn the chords…

Many thanks, and know what you mean about Steve L’s guitar sound. You kind of wonder what someone like Scott Henderson or Robben Ford could have done with that melody. Foley (on lead bass!) did quite a nice job when Miles played it live.

Yep, that “AOR” guitar, played by co-compser Lukather, was so awful that Miles called him a couple of weeks later and asked Lukather to join his band. It was 1986, and a Toto record, not sure what sound anyone was expecting or why it would have been “left off” as it was one of “the” guitar sounds of the time period. Like most fashionable things from the 80’s it hasn’t aged well, but the track is great as it is, in its time and now.

Thanks for filling in the blanks on this, which was one of the notable tracks when I wrote about Fahrenheit in my Toto series. This would be the high point of most artists’ careers, but for these guys it was just another in a long line of amazing collaborations. It’s just too bad it had the thin digital sound that has limited my enjoyment of a lot of jazz recordings from that era.

When you say that you’ve had a “troubled relationship with Toto’s music,” I know what you mean. it took me many years to see past the 3 songs of theirs that have gotten played on the radio constantly over the years. And they still get overplayed today! To fully appreciate the greatness of Toto as a band, you have to do some digging and listen to their deep cuts. After doing that, it should be obvious to anyone with an ear for good music that they were a lot more than just another AOR band.